The Squire on a White Horse

Chapter 9.1. Defective Doll

Spring seemed to be late this year. Even though it’s already past the middle of March, the spring flowers in my garden stubbornly refused to open their petals.

If they didn’t bloom soon, I’d have to leave this house without seeing the flowers in full bloom.

The day had been set for Stanley to quit and become my fiancé at the same time. As the day drew near, I was experiencing mixed emotions, almost negative, that I could not describe.

Aishe called it “marriage blues”.

Once we were officially engaged, Stanley would go home first, and I would follow a little later, and then we would get married at the church in the ward where he lived.

And he would hardly ever come back to this house.

The thought made me feel lonely, so I went out to the garden whenever I could, and walked around the vast flower garden that I could only see from the window when I was a child.

“It’s still all buds, isn’t it?”

“Yes, they are.”

I replied to Dana, who was following behind me, and turned on my heel toward the house.

Today I would listen to Dana’s lessons one more time, and then I would entertain Mother’s guests with her. After that, an etiquette teacher will come from outside to give me a final check on my manners and etiquette. She wanted to make sure that people would not think that I was just a noble lady because I was marrying a commoner.

Dana told me that I was well within the required standard, but I was worried and decided to have her come after all.

“I have to… work hard…”

Dana seemed to hear what I was saying.

“You’re working hard enough.”

“…You’ve been giving me a lot of compliments lately.”

“Yes, you’ve been working really hard.”

“I’d cry if you complimented me so much.”

I pretended to wipe away my tears and smiled, touching my eyes. Dana didn’t smile at all.

“Lady Florence, lately you’ve been a little…”

At that moment, Dana’s voice was interrupted by the loud laughter of several men.

In what seemed to be our blind spot were the servants of the stables.

The three men were sitting on the ground disheveled, probably taking a break, and I glanced back at Dana behind me.

Sure enough, the disciplined woman raises her eyebrows.

As I walked along, feeling sorry for them as Dana’s snide remarks would fly, I heard another round of laughter followed by a voice saying, “Speaking of which…”

“Master Arliss has set a date to leave, hasn’t he?”

My body tensed at the mention of Stanley’s name.

“I feel sorry for him, too. After ten years of devotion to him, he’s going to end up with a defective doll.”

My bloodlust dropped. I immediately realized. A defective doll. They were talking about me.

Dana gritted her teeth so hard that I could hear her next to me. I grabbed her wrist as she tried to jump in front of them in her demonic form.

It was just a bunch of insignificant gossip and backbiting from the servants. If I had to deal with them all, there would be no end to it.

I pulled her hand away and turned on my heel in the opposite direction, but the voices were relentless.

“I heard it’s not so bad. I heard the dowry was a huge amount.”

“Oh, so you’d have a lot of money and connections to the nobility?

“He also got the youngest princess he ever loved, and now that he’s the boss, he’ll have plenty of women coming his way, and if he can’t have children, he’ll have plenty of excuses to have them elsewhere.”

“Haha, he actually did pretty well, didn’t he?”

I finally couldn’t move at the sound of her sneer.

Dana swatted my hand away with a violent movement that I would not normally make and ran back to the men in front of me.

“Damn you, you lowlifes!”

Dana’s screeching voice was followed by a gasp that I could hear.

The servants finally noticed that I was frozen in place with my arm swept away by Dana. Their faces instantly turn pale.

“Oh, My Lady…!”

“That was…”

Dana swung her short whip high above her head at the twitching men.

“Dana, wait..!”

The whip struck the men in the face with a sharp sound.

“Such vile words! Let Lady Florence hear you!”

Dana’s whip cracked and a scream of “Forgive me!” were audible.

I stepped forward to stop her, but stopped myself. If I was not careful and got hurt, Dana would have to take the blame.

“Somebody, come on..!”

I thought I was shouting, but my voice was so weak that even the crack of the whip seemed to defeat me.

I ran out on shaky legs, looking for someone. I told the footman, who I quickly found in the mansion, that Dana and the servant were having a dispute. I tried to keep up with them as they rushed off, but my feet cowered and I couldn’t move.

I cross my arms on my chest.

I knew.

Stanley’s family approved of Stanley’s marriage to me, mainly because of the dowry and my title as the daughter of a lord. Otherwise, it would have been very difficult for them to be so reckless as to assign a childless woman to Stanley’s heir, even though he had the eldest son.

That’s good. They’re right. That’s the way it is no matter where you marry.

But…

I wondered if Stanley was planning to have a child with another woman.

I hadn’t even thought about it.

I didn’t need someone else to tell me that. My body was defective. It can’t even produce a child.

Then, did I have the right to interfere in any way if he had a child outside the home, if he wanted to take the child in, or if he wanted the mother of the child to live with him?

I wondered if he accepted this marriage because he thought he could have as many children as he wanted with other women.

“My Lady.”

I looked up at the voice. It was Stanley who came running towards me.

I couldn’t believe I thought of that. The Stanley I knew would never do such a thing.

And I was painfully aware that the Stanley I knew was not all that he was.

He said, “There’s some sort of commotion going on at…”

Having said that much, Stanley sped up and rushed to me, supporting my shoulder. I could feel the blood rushing to my shoulders. I’m sure he’s completely pale.

I turned around to get away from his hand and pointed to the door to the garden.

“I’m fine. Dana’s in trouble with the servants over me. You should do something about it before someone gets hurt badly.”

I turned to point and looked back at him again.

“Come on.”

I said hastily, and he darted his gaze back and forth as if lost again, his lips pursed.